Two aides to former Executive Director, Banking Supervision Bank of Uganda, Justine Bagyenda were on Thursday arrested by the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE. They were handed over to Parliament Police CID for further investigations over suspected crucial documents stolen from the Central Bank.
The arrested Bagyenda aides are Juliet Adikolet (bodyguard) and Job Turyahebwa (driver).
COSASE also arrested, Charles Omoro and Beatrice Kyambadde, who manned the security of the Banking Supervision department after it emerged that the duo were found to have lied when taking oath about the movements of the items in question.
Franis Takirwa, one of the MPs representing UPDF, who headed the Select Committee to investigate the matter, tabled his report before Parliament after the questioning of the four suspects where he told the Committee that the duo denied knowing the contents of the bag, despite some of the carrier’s materials being open.
“The two told us that they didn’t know what they were carrying and fortunately, Juliet carried something that was open, plastic bag, it wasn’t sealed but she couldn’t see inside because she was concerned with security and didn’t bother to know what she was carrying. Job, the driver also answered same way he didn’t know what he carried from the Bank to the vehicle on the evening of 10th February 2018,” Takirwa said.
When questioned about the movement of the bags, Bagyenda’s driver is said to have said that when they took off from airport at around 2-3Pm, they never made any stop but arrived at the Bank at 6:23PM, meaning it took the team 6hours to move from the airport to the bank.
In their conclusions, Takirwa told the Committee that an emergency door was open by the time the team arrived inside the Bank despite the fact that the Bank is only used for emergency purposes.
He said that despite the Security Guidelines stipulating that all persons and items entering and leaving the Bank have to be checked, this guideline wasn’t followed.
“There was a lot of negligence on part of security officers who knew what to do but didn’t do what they should have done. Their input didn’t do much, none of them knows what it was and it remains a puzzle,” Takirwa said.
It was then that COSASE Chairperson, Abdu Katuntu called on Milton Orech Opio, the Head of security, Bank of Uganda Security to produce the tracking system of Bagyenda’s car- a V8 Land CruiserUAR192Y which detailed movement of her vehicle on the day the documents were returned.
As opposed to claims by Bagyenda’s bodyguard and driver that they never made a stop after leaving the airport to Bank of Uganda, the tracking system indicated that the car parked at Kiswa in Bugoloobi from 1:57Pm to 4:59Pm and later drove back to the bank where they arrived at 6:24Pm.
The revelation angered the MPs, with Katuntu vowing to interrogate the matter further and asked the driver and aide why they lied about their movements.
“I warned you, don’t lie. Did you say you moved from the airport straight to the Bank? Do you know what it means for Police officer to lie on oath?” Katuntu said.
The driver said: “We have been moving a lot, but when he was reading the records, I remembered where we passed.
Adikolet, Bagyenda’s lawyer replied: “Since we over move. I didn’t intend to lie, we have just remembered when we read this.”
At this time, Katuntu said: “There is property at the Bank at stake, we don’t know what property it is. The officers who carried the property just lied on oath. Adikolet and Job we formally hand them over to you for purposes of criminal investigation and we need a report every week. They are suspects from today.”
